Seahawks schedule shows four primetime games, including Thanksgiving day feast with 49ers

The Seahawks are scheduled to play four primetime games in 2014, matching the primetime total from their Super Bowl XLVIII championship season. Three of the four games will take place away from the friendly confines of CenturyLink Field.

Seattle will kick off the 2014 regular season in front of a national television audience, playing host to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday, Sept. 4 in Seattle. The matchup, scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. kickoff on NBC, features the defending Super Bowl champions against last year’s NFC North winner. The two teams last met during Week 3 in 2012, when a last-second heave from quarterback Russell Wilson to wide receiver Golden Tate sealed a 14-12 victory for the Seahawks in a game that was also showcased during primetime.

The Seahawks own the NFL’s best record on Monday Night Football (20-8, .714) and they’ll get an opportunity to defend that mark (and keep their eight-game winning streak on the night alive) in Week 5 (Oct. 6) at the home of the Washington Redskins. It should be familiar setting for the blue and green, who captured a wild-card playoff win at Washington back in 2012, the franchise’s first road playoff victory since 1983. The Seahawks are 4-0 on Monday Night Football since coach Pete Carroll took control in 2010.

On Turkey Day, the Seahawks meet the division rival San Francisco 49ers for the first time in 2014. The Week 13 (Nov. 27) Thursday night game will be the Seahawks’ first game at the Niners’ new ballpark – Levi’s Stadium. The game will cap off a trio of holiday games, with the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys hosting the first two bouts that day.

Then, in Week 16 (Dec. 21) the Seahawks travel south to face the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday Night Football in the Glendale desert. It’s an intriguing matchup for the Seahawks against a club that has added talent on both sides of the ball this offseason, not to mention the only club to beat the Seahawks in Seattle over the past two seasons.

With a lack of primetime matchups from Weeks 6-12 – when the Seahawks will face the Dallas Cowboys, St. Louis Rams, Carolina Panthers, Oakland Raiders, New York Giants, Kansas City Chiefs, and Arizona Cardinals – the Seahawks could be a target of the NFL’s new rule allowing Sunday afternoon games to be “flexed” into the evening slot as early as Week 5. Previously, a game could not be flexed into or out of a primetime slot until Week 11.